The Distant Future of Console Gaming

[Game_boy]

Grey Acumen said:

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This is why my initial note was on the universal plug n play that the USB standard has begun to address. pretty much EVERYTHING has USB right now, so while it might not still be the format in 10 - 15 years, I think there will be a similar standardization in the connectivity of all components of a PC. Thus after a few months you WILL be able to find a retail card that will fit the given bus. Even though the individual components may never become standardized, I see teh connectivity between those components becoming standardized in the distance future.

 

No. Unlike USB devices which just want power and simple communication, processors require all sorts of specialised information at constantly increasing speeds. Even processors on the same socket require major BIOS updates that are often incompatible or have reduced functionality on old motherboards anyway.

GPUs are getting there with PCI Express, but the bandwidth limit means that adding a second GPU at present gives max 1.5x performance and with the current state of drivers often reduces performance below 1x. The way the manufacturers solve this is ever changing, proprietary connectorswhich are the opposite of what you want.

Result: I think it is physically impossible to come up with even a 5-year standard that they won't start wishing for a better one six months in. This is compounded by some manufacturers leaving the standard and gaining a slight advantage by using their own platform, leading every other company to do so too.